Lawyer: Conrad Black likely to be released Wed.

By Don Babwin -
Associated Press -
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

CHICAGO (AP) — A lawyer for Conrad Black said he expects the former media magnate to walk free on bond Wednesday from the Florida prison where he has been serving a 6½-year sentence for defrauding investors.

After a bond hearing in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Black attorney Miguel Estrada said he expects the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman to be freed from the minimum-security prison in Coleman, Fla., where he has served more than two years of his sentence, and to return to his home in Palm Beach, Fla.

“I’m hoping it happens today. It should happen today. It’s up to the facility to process the court order,” Mr. Estrada said.

Judge Amy St. Eve ordered Black released on bond pending the outcome of his appeal of his 2007 conviction. She set his bond at $2 million, which was paid by Black’s friend, Roger Hertog, and ordered Black not to leave the continental United States or to attempt to obtain a passport.

The judge also ordered Black to appear before her on Friday afternoon in Chicago to go over the terms of his release. Mr. Estrada said the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued Black an ID that will allow him to fly to Chicago.

Lawyers for Black, who renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a member of the British House of Lords, had asked that he be allowed to return to a home he owns in Toronto.

Black and three former Hollinger International Inc. executives were convicted of defrauding shareholders out of $6.1 million. One of the prosecutors’ arguments was that Black deprived the company of his faithful services as a corporate officer, breaking the so-called “honest services” law.

Black also was convicted of obstruction of justice after jurors saw a video of him carrying boxes of documents out of his offices, loading them into his car and driving off with them. The documents were sought by government investigators.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month limited the scope of the honest services law, leaving it to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether to overturn Black’s conviction in whole or in part. The appeals court on Monday granted Black’s motion for bail as he appeals his fraud conviction.

The high court’s ruling didn’t affect the obstruction of justice count.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, declined to comment on Black’s criminal case because the appeal is pending.

At the core of the charges against Black was his strategy, starting in 1998, of selling off the bulk of the small community papers. Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises that they would not return to compete with the new owners.

Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger’s board of directors.